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Re: Getting rid of a time share. (by Orville M.):

peterp151 wrote:

I wouldn't read too much into the sites' owners hidden by the WHOIS privacy shield. I like to think I'm an open book kind of guy (just read my posts!) but I prefer to keep my contact info private from WHOIS inquiries. Cuts down on sales calls and the like.

I agree with your other concerns, wish I could help on that.

I hear you on privacy, but here we have two organizations that claim to be consumer rights advocates. All WHOIS shows is the name, organization, address and contact info for the site administrator. That doesn't even have to be the content provider. It often is just an individual in the ISP that sold and administers the domain, which tells you nothing about the actual source.

The only "legitimate" reason to stay low is if the site owner works in the industry and is moonlighting as a consumer advocate. But we are left wondering whether the two sites are jointly run, or even worse, whether they are fronts for less-than-credible sources. Not likely, but conspiracy theories are what happens when you hide something about yourself.

I agree, I wouldn't put a whole lot of importance on the WHOIS blackout. But it is a bit odd and worth noting.

If Joanna Bond is a published writer, she must do it in obscure sources or under a different name. I couldn't find her listed as a journalistic author on Google or on a Highbeam search of 3,500 publications and news sources. My guess - and I'm going even farther out on the limb here with thinly supported supposition based solely on what I know about PR practices and the style of her analysis article - is that if she exists at all, she's a freelance writer with some PR experience. And her analysis has a certain lawyerly ring to it, as if she were rewriting a legalistic briefing paper. Nothing inherently wrong with that - I have done the same exercise hundreds of times in my job - but if so, the claim that she is an "investigative reporter" or whatever is stretching it a bit.

If she or anyone who knows her wants to weigh in to add to the record, I will humbly stand corrected. I'm just reading some rather thin tea leaves here. And the bottom line still is that there apparently are some out there who are willing to take on the hustlers and con men by actually helping their victims istead of ripping them off for a second time.